Puerto Galera

Our room. there is an arrow pointing to it, its up on the hill side

View from the room

After an 2 hour bus ride from Manila to Basuanga we caught a ferry over to Sabang Beach in Puerto Galera which took about an hour. Sabang beach itself is certainly no Koh Rok but we are not here for the beach so it didnt matter to much. There is a lot of sea weed on the beach and the smell reminded me of the beaches in the UK which I quiet like. Luckily for us getting off the boat with our heavy bags was easy as two guys came on and carried them for us. I was quite happy for them to do this, i'd much rather pay someone to carry my bag than do it myself. We told the guys that we wanted to go to South Sea Divers as I had spoken with the owner the night before and he said he would be able to find us accomodation. However when we got there the place he usually goes to could only give us a room for one night as it was the start of Holy Week (Easter, its a Christian country). This sounded a bit of hassle as the room was a right trek away and we wanted to get settled somewhere and not have to move a day later. Billy went off to see if he could find anything better and about 10mins later he came back and said he had found a really nice room up on the hill side with an amazing view of the bay and that the room was ours for as long as we wanted it and someone would come and fetch our bags and take them to the room, bonus! Funnily enough it was the same guys who came to take our bags whom had helped us off the boat. I bet they were happy to find out they had to go to the other end of the beach with our bags!

The room we got was really nice and most importantly it had a hot shower! though the walk up to the room was a killer. It is properly up a hill and you have to walk up so many steps, but its good exercise.

It's quite a strange place Sabang, like I said before you dont come here for the beach, not only is there a lot of sea weed on it but it is tiny too, the shore is very close to the resorts. There seems to be a mixture of tourists. There are many dive resorts so obviously many divers, then there are people here on package holidays which is strange as its not a place I'd have picked to spend my 2 weeks vacation and then there are the single males here for the Flipino girls. Apparently with Manila, Puerto Galera is one of the country's prositution hotspots. That does make it sound like a grim place but its not that bad though there are quiet a few old, fat western men with a young Filipino girl on their arm, eewww!!

I cant say we can really get a true reflexion on what the Philippines is like in this town as it is a holiday town. There are many bars, restaurants and souvenir shops but its still a nice place to be. It is very convenient as everything that we may need is to hand.

Hello Philipines and Manila

A Jeepney

The street our hotel was on.

We got up at 3:30 am to get to the airport for 5 and catch our flight to the Philippines at 7:20. We flew Air Asia which was a really good flight considering it was a budget airline. The plane was comfortable enough, we had leather seats! It was much better than Easy Jet. It took about 3 1/2 hours to get to Manila though unfortunately Air Asia doesn't fly to the International Airport in Manila but to the airport at Clark Airbase (its an old US airbase now Domestic and International Airport) which was 80 odd KM from Manila. When we arrived we had a bit of trouble getting some cash as the cash machine wouldn't let us have any money. We had some British pounds on us so changed some at the exchange counter. We then got on a bus to get to Manila which took about 2 hours and we got to watch Under Siege on the way lol :-).

Once in Manila we got a taxi to the hotel. The people seemed really friendly, a guy came over and helped us get a taxi and agreed a price for us. When we got to the hotel the taxi driver did try to double the fair but we paid the agreed price in the end. The Philippines seems quite strange on first impression. It was nothing like we had seen in the other South East Asian countries we had been too. Nothing seemed familiar. The Philippines had previously been under Spanish and American occupation and you can really tell. We have not been to South America but this is what we would expect it to be like and other people we have spoken to who have been agreed. One guy said "put a sombrero on the Filipinos heads and you wouldn't know the difference!" All the road signs, street names, shop names, menus, newspapers, radio etc etc are in English. It is very strange. It seems they speak in Tagalog (Filipino) and read in English. Obviously they speak very good English with an American twang. They are super friendly and always say good morning ma'am, sir or hello ma'am, sir whenever you walk by. On the morning we were leaving Manila I popped in to the 7 11 for a drink and the whole shop erupted in to a chorus of Good Morning Ma'am. It was really funny, everyone started to laugh as they all seemed to have said it at the same time, it certainly made the early morning much happier. They also have a strange mode of public transport. They call them Jeepneys. When the Americans left they left behind many jeeps and these were adapted for use as public transport, now they still use the same design but really customise them. Some are really elaborate with many decorations and ornaments and are quite terrifying when you cross a road and have 2 or 3 jeepneys heading for you. You really wouldn't want to be hit by one, they are like tanks!!

Manila was a strange one though. I don't think it helped that we had to be up so early to catch our flight we were walking round feeling like we had just been on the DNA Mixer a couple of times. The Lonely Planet describes Manila as "Delhi/Jakarta on street level and New York from the 3rd storey up". How true that seemed as well. On the way in there were many slums that I had only really seen in Cambodia before. Also some of the streets in Manila where we were staying were very narrow with lots of money exchange shops which Billy said did very much remind him of India. The amount of times we were hassled about changing money! Also in every shop and hotel there was an armed guard which made it slightly unnerving. They were obviously there for a reason. The lonely Planet had also said that at night Manila was "sketchy at best". So we decided to have a quick wander, get some food and then go back to the hotel. We wanted the Internet and we were told there was a place in the department store up the road. We found it and had a look for some places to stay in Puerto Galera as we were going to head out there the next day and wanted an idea of places to go and check out. After we finished we went back out on the street and Billy had said he would like Pizza Hut for tea. We saw a guy with a take away box and asked him where Pizza Hut was. He pointed back in the direction of the department store but to another door way. We walked up and went inside and found ourselves in this huge shopping mall, with designer shops and restaurants. It was bizarre. Where did this place come from!! It was likes we walked through a door in to another dimension. Anyway we found Pizza Hut and they were certainly redeemed from our last experience. We had excellent customer service, we were even told how many minutes our pizzas would be and they were really good too. After we had a quick wander around the mall but couldn't be bothered to walk too much and then headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep before getting up at 7 to get the bus and boat to Puerto Galera.

Last night in KL and with Peter and Debs :-(

After a hard days thrill ride adventure we decided to eat locally for tea. There was a great little street vendor just round the corner from the hotel where me and Billy had eaten a few nights before and I went to for breakfast each day. They have tables on the pavement and a food stand with many kinds of Chinese dishes, where you just help yourself to whatever you want for about 80p. It's such good food too and its hard not to over fill your plate, we were stuffed. After we had finished eating we decided to walk through the shopping mall on the way to the hotel. Inside we saw a department store and decided to go in, boy what a bad mistake. We were quite tired from our hectic day and we hadn't planned on walking about long but we got lost in the department store and couldn't find our way out. It was like being in a horror movie, 4 travelers, trapped in a department store from hell! there's no escape ahhhhhhhh!!!!! After a while Debbie recognised where we came in from and we found our way out. We quickly got out of the shopping mall and back on to the street. We then said our goodbyes which was really sad. It has been great travelling with Pete and Debs. We will certainly miss their company. We were flying to Manila in the Philippines the next day (at 7:20 am) and they were carrying on travelling through Malaysia, back in to Thailand and Cambodia and Laos. Happy travels guys. :-)

The Indoor Theme Park at Times Square Shopping Plaza

The DNA mixer
Inside the theme park

The roller coaster

The next day we thought we would have some action packed theme park adventure. In Times Square plaza they have the biggest indoor theme park in Malaysia apparently! The plaza itself is enormous, there are 10 floors full of shops and the theme park uses about a quarter of floors 5-10! It cost about a fiver to go in and once paid you can go on the rides as many times as you like. There were lots of kids rides but some "thrill" rides to and for a fiver we thought it was worth a go. First we went on the roller coaster which was actually really good. As soon as it left the platform it went in to a cork screw. There was lots of upside down moments and it went really high. Next we checked out the bumper cars which were so much fun, we were howling the whole way round and then decided to go on a ride called the DNA Mixer. It looked harmless enough, it reminded us of the flying carpet ride you get at fun fairs. Boy were we wrong, it was the worst ride we have ever been on. It started off rocking backwards and forwards and then the next thing it was spinning us really fast forwards. It stopped, rocked again and then span like crazy backwards. At first it was funny but it kinda went on for ages and we really wished it would stop . We felt so sick when we got off. Me and Debs had gotten headaches and we all felt we needed to sit down. There was a ride next door which looked easy going. Just a cart that went round and round. We thought we'd have a go on that to settle our stomachs. Unfortunately it went really really fast and made the person on the outside get squashed by the person in the inside. Fortunately for me and Debs we were sat on the inside of our carts so Pete and Billy got squashed! Just what they needed, though we all still felt just as sick after this ride. Time for the kiddies rides. We went on the pretend steam train, some jeep things and had a sit down and felt much better. We went on another couple of "thrill" rides but they were fine we didn't feel ill after them and then had another go on the bumper cars and roller coaster before leaving. We had a wonder around the shopping mall and then I left everyone whilst i had my hair cut at Tony and Guy! That certainly settled my stomach. Cant beat new hair lol :-)

After the aquarium

Pete outside KLCC

After we had been in the aquarium we went and warmed up again outside and then went to the food court to eat, then went to the cinema which was also in KLCC. We decided to see "300" as we had heard good reviews about it, well actually some Malaysian guy had ranted at us in Hat Yai as the cinemas there were only showing it in Thai with no English subtitles, he was gutted as he had watched the trailer for it online in the morning and said it looked fab. lol :-)

It was a very good film though. I definitely recommend it.

KLCC Aquarium

In the walk through tunnel.

In the rain forest section. A tree inside the fish tank.

A short walk through the car park and there was an aquarium. It was only about a fiver so we decided to go in. It was really impressive, it was an enormous complex. As we walked in there was a touch area where they had baby nurse sharks, lobsters and some crazy alien crab which we all had a feel of. It was amazing how rough the sharks skin was, it looks really smooth but its not. Then there was a section about the rainforest's that had fresh water fish and some reptiles. They had lots of different types of snake which was gorgeous and thats where we were able to discover what type of snake Fred was. There was also a lizard section with many gecko's which they were feeding and some frogs :-( I nearly passed out when i saw the giant toad. It was horrible. They also had a reef section with all our favorite fish in and a couple of sand tiger sharks which were huge. The walk through tunnel was amazing it went on for ages and we really got to see the fish up close and the sharks teeth!!

Me and Billy by the reef aquarium.

KLCC Gardens

There are some really nice gardens outside the towers which make as a nice rest spot and also somewhere to warm up as it is freezing inside. We decided to go an Italian ice cream and chill out for a while. It was very nice.

KLCC (Kuala Lumpur Twin Towers)

Cheezy holiday pic :-)

We left the Perhentian and got a bus to Kuala Lumpur (KL). Pete and Deb decided to get the jungle train down so we were going to meet up with them there. When they arrived we decided to go and see the twin towers. Me and Billy had been before but were happy to go again as they are so magnificent to see. Also there is a huge shopping plaza underneath them which is well worth a walk round.

Last night on Perhentian

As the weather had turned bad we decided to only stay a week. The diving wasn't great as the storms had shifted a lot of sediment so viz was pretty rubbish. As we are flying home from KL we decided we will go back to the Perhentian before flying home. This will also be in the peak season when the diving is at its best so it made sense.
We had been spending our wet days in the restaurant watching awful movies, playing scrabble and playing cards. The picture here is of is at a table in the restaurant.

The Jungle Trek

On one of the sunny days me, Pete and Deb decided to go on the shorter jungle trek trail which would take us to the beach on the other side of the island. Me and Deb were suitably dressed in a bikini top and Deb had shorts on and me a short sarong. I think if Ray Mears had seen us he would have had a fit! Definitely not Jungle Trek gear but it was really hot and our clothes would have just been wet after 2 seconds. Though there were a lot of mosquitoes about and I'm surprised we wasn't eaten alive. The trek itself was fun. We had to climb to the top of this big hill. luckily the tree routes acted as steps which made it easier though there were lots of branches and boulders to climb over. After our steep climb we descended down the other side and to the beach. it took about 20-30 minutes and was well worth it. We didn't see anything exciting but was nice to walk through the jungle. The other side was different to our beach. There was a government building and some jetty's with many fishing boats mored up. We also walked past some places which seemed to have once been a busy resort but now shut down. We stopped for a drink and then decided to get a taxi boat back to our beach as the sun was getting low and we really didn't want to get eaten by mozzies.

The Wildlife Door

Malcolm
Monkeys in the trees outside the room

Fred

The room we stayed in had a front and and back door. The back door led on to a small porch and beyond that was a small paved area and then the jungle. Perhentian Besar where we stayed does not have any town or village. There are resorts along the coast line but the rest of the island is still untouched jungle. On the first day we got settled in the room and went to have a look out the back. To our amazement there was a snake right outside the door on a big plant that came over on to our porch. It was so nice. It was bright green and practically the same colour as the plant, I named it Fred. We later found out it was an Oriental Whip Snake which are quite common and not venomous. Not that we minded anyway as it was quiet placid. It stayed there until the next afternoon by which time i think it got annoyed by us constantly going out to gorp at it.
The next day I saw a monitor lizard it wasnt a big one but it was still really nice. It seemed to live just out the back as we often saw it. Pete named it Malcolm. Well they have to have names :-)
On the last day I awoke and decided to look out of the wildlife door to see if there was anything exciting and there was. There was a family of monkeys in the trees right by us. I had not seen these particular type before. They were back all over except on their face where their facial features where outlined in white. There was a mother monkey who had a baby and that was bright orange. They were really cute and stayed in the trees all day and we could even hear them that night.

This is one of the best things about Malaysia. The abundance of wildlife.

Perhentian Smiles

We managed to make it to the Perhentian in one day and got there about 3-4ish. It was much cooler on the island than on the main land. It was 38 degrees on the main land and we had to sit in a taxi with no air con for nearly two hours to get to the boat port. So we were pleased it wasn't so hot. As ever the islands were beautiful, a bit like Koh Rok only with resorts and more busier. The bay where we stayed is very shallow and there is coral right up to the shore practically, which is great for snorkeling but not for swimming. The place where we stay is called Flora Bay and this is where we learnt to dive and spent just over a month last time we were in Malaysia. It was great to see everyone again. Juju who is now the wife of Azman who runs the dive shop was so pleased to see us. She is very pregnant and was only on the Perhentian for another week before going to KL to have her baby so we were lucky we got there when we did.

We had planned to stay for two weeks but unfortunately the weather turned bad after about 3 days being there. It was good for the island as even though the rainy season had just finished it hadn't rained for 3 months!! This then made the diving not so good. It wasn't spectacular anyway as it was the beginning of the season and the sediment in the water had not yet settled from the rough seas of the rainy season. We did have a couple of really nice dives though. One in particular we saw a turtle, a honey comb moray eel which we have never seen before and an enormous hump head parrot fish. It was the biggest one i have ever seen, it had to be over a metre! The day the rain came we still went for a dive as we figured we were going to get wet anyway. Unfortunately the boat ride was pretty hairy. They use small speed boats and the swells were really big making it a very choppy ride to the dive site. I'm not keen on choppy boat rides so wasn't enjoying it much. After about 20mins the boat driver and dive master decided there was no point carrying on to this particular dive site and we turned around and went to another one which we had not been to before. It wasn't great as the viz was about 3-5m and not many fish about. The way back to shore was pretty miserable again and i was freezing. Hence we decided to stop diving there at that point. We had done 5 and are going to go back there at the end of July before going home which will be during peak season and when the diving is the best.

We spent the next couple of days in the restaurant watching movies, playing scrabble and cards before leaving exactly a week later to head to Kuala Lumpur (KL).

Reverse Parking a Dinosaur :-)

On the last day when we were all able to have a walk around Hat Yai we stumbled across a child's play area in one of the shopping malls. Just outside was this ride along dinosaur. There was no one about so Pete decided to have a go. It was the most funniest things I have ever seen. The dinosaur shuffled along the tiled floor playing this happy music. Pete was able to go in any direction and even reverse, there was no restriction to where it could go, he could have ridden it all round the mall. In reverse mode the music would stop and it would start to make beeping noises as if he was reversing a lorry. I'm not kidding we were howling, I had tears rolling down my face, i looked like i was crying, it was that funny. We got Pete to reverse park the dinosaur next to this other ride which he did, by which time we were all in hysterics. We have recorded it on a mobile phone video so we can show you when we get back. You wont be disappointed. I reckon we should put it on You Tube. So from now on Pete's quest is to reverse park as many reptiles as possible though unfortunately there haven't been any big enough yet. :-)

Culinary Experience 2

Above a vendor selling sticky rice with Mango. Definitely one of our favorite Thai dishes.

It wouldn't be my blog without some last mention of Thai food :-) I was obviously very sad to be leaving Thailand and its amazing food. I like Malaysia and Malay food but it is just not the same. In Hat Yai there was a great variety of food to choose from. From fast food like Pizza Hut and McDonald's to restaurants such as Japanese, Indian, Chinese and Muslim and then the street vendors selling food such as chicken satay, grilled giant prawns, noodle soup, sticky rice with durian or mango and all kinds of fruit. I also found one vendor selling crab stick satay which i thought I'd have a try of. unfortunately the lady put the satay stick in some hot oil and deep fried it for a couple of minutes! I was quiet disappointed, I was happy just to have it cold, fried crab stick was a bit rubbish. It didn't taste quiet the same hot and it just soaked up the oil so was just like an hot oil satay stick which tasted a little fishy. The chili sauce I got with it was good though lol :-)

Pizza Hut

Sad faces at Pizza Hut.

On the last day we all managed to go out together. We spent the day walking round some air con shopping malls and through the streets looking at some of the old buildings. In the evening we decided to go to Pizza Hut for tea, we got there a little late but that was OK as it was quiet. We sat down and waited a while to be served. They had a salad bar so Me, Billy and Pete were going to have salad for starter and Debs went for onion rings. For our main obviously we were going to have pizza but it took a long time to order. They didn't have many of the bases that we wanted and the guy kept getting very confused with our order, which wasn't his fault entirely, he spoke English but just didn't seem to get what we wanted. After about 5mins we got our food and drinks ordered. The drinks came and they were gorgeous. We had fruit smoothies that were lush. We went to get our salad from the salad bad but it was very disappointing. There was not much left and it all looked like it had been there all day. I still had some as I figured it is still some veg intake but Billy and Pete passed. We got our pizzas and unfortunately they brought the wrong one out for Billy and he had to send it back and his proper pizza took so long that we had got ours and had practically finished them. We were starting to think that they had forgotten and was about to pay and leave to go somewhere else to get Billy some food when it arrived. So whilst we had finished eating Billy had just started and Deb had started to feel a bit ill. She said that the onion rings were pretty horrid and thought it was that. When we left we were walking to the bar and Deb felt really sick. Her and Pete legged it to the Post with us following where Deb was really sick. We stayed for a drink whilst Debs was in the loo and then left. Unfortunately it wasn't just the onion rings, Debs had caught the bug too. We were traveling to Malaysia the next day and Pete and Debs visa expired then so they had to leave. Poor Deb then had to travel all day feeling ill, including standing in ques waiting to get stamped in and out of Thailand and Malaysia in 38 degree heat. Bless :-(

Post Laser Disc

The band at The Post
In the evenings we went to an expat bar called Post Laser Disc which me and Billy had found last time we was in Thailand. Every night they have a live (Thai) band who play western covers. Unfortunately there only seemed one night (out of 3) that we all managed to go together and then that was not for long. The first night Pete was ill so just Me, Billy and Debs went. The 2nd night Billy was ill as well as he had caught the bug so him and Pete stayed in the hotel and the third night we all went very briefly as Deb came down ill as we were out (more on that later though). You can't say I don't share with my friends, oops!
The bar was really good though. It was owned by an English guy so there was lots of English memorabilia about the place and football on the TVs. They also did really good food, Thai and Western, which included things like pie and chips and pasta and had a good drinks menu. Me and Deb went for a glass of red wine the first night but they served it chilled (why!) so didn't bother after that and went on to the cocktail list instead :-)

The band were quite amusing. They played and sung very well though sometimes the struggled to pronounce their R's and L's and occasionally some words just seemed to be missed completely. One cover Debs often sings goes "I want to blake flee" "I want to blake flee" lol bless them. One cover we particularly enjoyed was Bohemian Rhapsody which they did two of the nights we went. It was classic, it was one of the reasons we kept going back, it was so good.

In the hotel

We were very privileged to be staying in the hotel which had built the first lift in Hat Yai in 1964. :-)

Can't get more organised than this!!

Thailand - Last Stop Hat Yai

We left Lanta about 8am and headed for Hat Yai a big border city in southern Thailand. Unfortunately Peter had caught the stomach bug that I had had 2 days previous so was feeling very unwell. It took about 6 hours to get there via mini van, by which time Pete was not looking great. Luckily the mini van dropped us just across the street from the hotel we were going to stay at.
Pete and Deb stayed in the hotel for the rest of the day and me and Billy took a wander around the streets. Hat Yai is very different to other Thai cities I have been to. It seems more geared to Malay tourists rather than Western tourists. Even though market stalls selling souvenirs line the streets we didn't get hassled once. Unlike being in Bangkok. It is also very Chinese in Hat Yai with many Chinese restaurants, temples and Chinese Malay people.

The above picture is one of the streets near the hotel.

The Beeston Massive (our pub quiz name :-) )

Tony, Deb, Pete, Me and Billy on our last night at the Sanctuary together. Tony is staying until the end of the season where he will go back home, save some money and go back for the new season.

It was sad to leave Tony. We all had a really good time together.

Last Gathering

Left to right, Karen, Rain, Debbie, Pete, someone, Tony, Maarten, Billy. Sat on a mat near the cocktail bar listening to the band. We are sat on grass though it does look like sand as it is so dry.

Poor Pete. The decks were no good :-(

Goodbye Lanta :-(

Our last night on Koh Lanta and at the Sanctuary was really fantastic. Karen and Hassan hired a band from Chiang Mai which apparently were supposed to be a Salsa band but when they arrived they didn't seem to know what Salsa was lol. It didn't matter though as they were really good, they played stuff like Bob Marley and Jack Johnson and also some other songs which did have a Latino feel to them. Unfortunately I had been ill for a couple of days and even though I didn't feel too bad at this point I thought it wise not to drink plus we had to get up early in the morning as the bus was picking us up at 7:30. Even so we still didn't go to bed till late but it was worth it. They also had some decks so Pete could DJ, however there was a problem with the sound from the decks so all he could do was use an MP3 player to supply the music when the band took breaks and when they finished. The people who had supplied the decks turned up at 1am to see what the problem was and insisted to Pete that they were fine until he proved to them a few times what the problem was. Eventually they fixed the problem though this was after me and Billy had gone to bed, and Pete DJ'd until 2:30 am before going to bed themselves.

The picture above is of the band which were next to the restaurant. Hassan is playing the Bongo's in the bottom right and the guy on the far left with no top on is the chef from Thai Cuisine who I decided to name the Gyrating Chef as he was rivalling Shakira with his hip moves. It was very entertaining he was dancing everywhere, grabbing Thai girls up to dance with him, which I felt very sorry for them lol :-) and he then decided to get up with the band and dance with them. He was very drunk and even though he had some moves I kinda found it a little unnatural and a bit disturbing especially when he was facing us thrusting his gut in our direction. Nice!

The food is good at the Sanctuary honest!!

Pete is looking a bit dumb struck at the meal he just got lol :-)

Tea time at the Sanctuary

Massaman Curry a Sanctuary. One of their specialities. Yummy :-)

So good Billy had to take a picture lol.

Sanctuary Kids

Jessy, Izzie, Mona, Lolita and Mona again. Except for Mona these are Karen's and Hassan's children. Jessy is a sweet boy who often sits down and talks with us at the table and is very courteous. Izzie is quite mischeivious and is always lauging and Lolita is very cute and has a gorgeous little voice and is often found running round the restaurant with Mona. It is amazing how even at her age of 2 1/2 she can converse in Thai and English very easily and often switches between the two if talking with Karen and Mona. This is the same for Izzie and Jessy too. It is very impressive.

Sanctuary People

These are the guys who worked in the restaurant in the Sanctuary, who were all really good fun. From left to right is Yai, Ohn and Tony all standing behind the counter. Not quite sure what Ohn is so excited about though lol :-)

Ban Saladan - Koh Lanta

This is the main town in Koh Lanta, the photo's are taken at each end of the main street. Here you can buy just about anything you need whilst staying in Lanta at tourist prices of course :-). Including spectacles in the 5 opticians on the main street?? We presume it must be very cheap to get your eyes tested and buy glasses here than at home so it is a big business. It is just strange to see 5 big optician shops in such a small town lol :-)

Lanta Life and update

I haven't done any daily posts whilst in Lanta as the days are pretty much the same and the blog would end up being a very boring diary.

Life is very easy in Lanta. I generally wake up about 6:30 - 7:00 get up about 7:30 when it is not so hot and either go for a run up the beach and back or do some general exercise. I get back have a shower, Billy usually wakes up then and then we either head to the Sanctuary for breakfast or go to Faim De Loup which is a French run bakery and does the best breakfast with freshly baked bread. yummy :-)

After breakfast we sit and talk with Deb, Pete, Tony and whoever else is there. I will then get in some hammock time and read a book. (I had to finish Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in record time) whilst Billy usually sits in the restaurant and plays his daily scrabble match with Pete, Dom and Joe.

That's about how the days go. I will use the Internet at about 4pm, then about 6:30 have showers, get mozzie repellented up before going to the Sanctuary to discuss where we would be having our evening meal. The choice usually being the Sanctuary, Papaya, Groove Garden or Thai Cuisine. All of which has great food and more often than not we just stayed at the Sanctuary and if not we would end up back there anyway on someones porch. The hardcore among us (not me) would then sometimes head up to Earth Bar till the early hours. I was usually too tired by 10 to do anything as getting up early and exercising then spending the day in 36 degree heat wiped me out. i didn't mind though, having a hangover in this heat sucks. :-)

That's' generally Lanta life. Everyone goes in and out of the Sanctuary all day, talk, have a beer, relax. It's very easy to see why a lot of people spend the whole season there or most of it.

Even though it was sad to leave Lanta we did feel it was time to go, it is very easy to get sucked in to living a Thai life and get caught up with the drama that goes on like it's a replacement for Eastenders. I will miss the place dearly but there are many more to discover.

I do have some pics to put on from the last night at lanta which i will do as soon as i can. We are currently in Hat Yai a southern city near the Thai/Malay border where we are going to stay for a couple of days before heading to Malaysia and the Perhentian Islands and more diving :-)

Thai Massage

As we were in Thailand it was only courtesy to partake in the activity of Thai Massage, especially as it is so cheap, 4 pounds for a Thai Massage and 6 for an oil massage which last an hour sometimes a little longer. The first one we had was in Bangkok in the 2nd hotel we were staying in. The girls had a little shop on the ground floor which looked reasonably priced for where we were. We booked in at 5pm for an oil massage after we had spent the day by the pool. We went in to the little shop where we were taken through a curtained door way out to the back of the shop where it was very dimly lit with red light! It was starting to look a little seedy but we were in the hotel so thought it was just for effect. There was a room with about half a dozen massage mats on the floor and curtains separating each mat however we had the curtains around two mats as we were together. The girls told us to strip to our pants which we did and lay down on our fronts. I thought this is OK as when i turn over she will just put a towel over me. After about half an hour of a lovely massage I was asked to roll over, and no towel was provided :-(. OK i thought she has seen it all before and we're both female no problem until she started to massage my chest!!! Omg, i wasn't expecting that, she must have seen the look on my face (i kept my eyes clothes) as she stopped quite quickly. Phew! I told Billy about it after and he had had a weird experience too when he was lying on his front. He thought the girl must have been quite strong as she was putting quite a lot of pressure on his back, he looked round to find she was actually walking up and down on him! A very strange experience, though it was a very good massage.

The 2nd massage i had, was with a lady that works at the Sanctuary. I remember her from when we were there 4 years ago and she me though i can not remember her name. As she knew mine i felt to rude to ask hers again lol. She does massage on the beach. She has a little bamboo structure with a massage mat on. I decided to go for a Thai massage as I am in Thailand after all and it would be rude not too. I think now though i will stick to oil massage as boy the massage was good and relaxing but i kinda felt like i had been beaten up at the same time. I was sore for a couple of days and not in a good way.

Last day on Lanta an i thought i ought to go for another massage. This time an oil one and with a different lady (because the other was not working). It was so nice. again on the beach but the girl had really good massage hands and was very gentle. I could have stayed all day. It was fab. I'm definitely converted to oil rather than Thai/pain massage. Billy also had one with the same girl after me and said the same.

I'm not sure if Malaysia do massage like they do in Thailand. In Thailand it is very common and you can practically get a massage anywhere. But I don't recall seeing massage parlors in Malaysia or if i did they were probably really expensive so didn't bother with it. Oh well i have had more massages in the last 3 weeks than i have in 4 years so i reckon i will survive :-)

Me and Deb having a swim

Pete, Martin and Billy in the sea at Koh Rok

Koh Rok

As Martin is only here for 10 days we thought it would be good to have a day out and show him some more of Thailand. None of us had been to Koh Rok before so thought it would be a great trip for all.
At about 8:15 we headed down the beach to get on the speed boat which was waiting for us. (we wanted some breaky first). It took about an hour to pick everyone else up at other resorts and then another hour to get to Koh Rok. First of all we did some snorkeling just off the island which wasn't bad, though a little frustrating for us divers and being on the surface means you cant go and look under rocks and search for Nudibranc but it was nice all the same. Then we went ashore and had a little time to explore the island before lunch. It was a beautiful island. Powdery white sand which was like talc in your toes and the clearest turquoise water. Even when you couldn't touch the bottom of the sea anymore you could still see the sand below. It was really amazing. For lunch they did a buffet Thai style, stir fried vegetables, stir fried chicken and vegetables, rice and deep fried chicken with fruit for afters. It was really good food. After we ate me and Deb sunbathed on the beach whilst the lads went wondering in the forest and then we all played in the crystal clear water until it was time to get back on the boat to go to another snorkeling destination and then head home. It was a very hot day and needless to say most of us got a bit of sun burn. I wasn't too bad, just a couple of patches, Billy burnt his chest and shoulders and Martin burnt practically all over and was red raw, its now been about 3 days and he still has blisters. Ouch!!

Dancing queens

Debbie and Karen boogieing the night away as Martin returns from the bar.

From left to right around the table. Me, Eina, Karen, Debbie, some guy, Martin, Tony, Mr Singha, Dutch Martin, Dom. The guy in the far back ground is the owner of Mango House